Gelhaus and an unidentified deputy spotted Lopez walking to a friend’s house carrying what was mistakenly believed to be an AK-47 rifle. The “weapon” was actually a plastic BB gun that fired plastic pellets. It is smaller than the actual rifle and has a transparent plastic middle section. The encounter took place at 3:15 PM on a brightly-lit day, which means that the “weapon” would have been recognized as a toy if Gelhaus would have taken a second or two to get a good look at it.

After calling in a report of an armed suspect, Gelhaus ordered the other deputy — a trainee — to pull up about twenty to thirty feet behind the Middle School-age boy. Gelhaus drew his gun, took cover behind a door, and ordered Lopez to “drop the gun.” The youngster, reacting instinctively to an unfamiliar — and unidentified — voice, turned to face the deputies. Gelhaus reacted by firing seven shots. All of this took place within the space of about ten seconds.

Lt. Paul Henry of the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, explained that Gelhaus’s “mindset was that he was fearful that he was going to be shot.” A 24-year veteran who was a firing range instructor, Gelhaus offered a glimpse into his fear-saturated mindset in an article published by SWAT magazine in 2008:

“Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home. If you cannot turn on the `mean gene’ for yourself, who will?… Taking some kind of action — any kind of action — is critical.”

In other words: You must be prepared to kill at the first intimation of a threat to “officer safety.”

The traffic stop took place on a narrow shoulder near a steep hillside, and Westbrook asked if he could move the car in order to make more room for the officer. Gelhaus reacted by pulling his gun and pointing it at the terrified driver’s head.

When Westbrook learned that Gelhaus was the officer who had fatally shot Lopez, he found himself wondering if “maybe something could have been done” to rein in the bellicose deputy before he killed somebody.

Gelhaus has been restricted to desk duty until the familiar ritual of exoneration reaches its foreordained conclusion.

isn't sonoma county the place where a guy asked cops a question, they arrested him and he complied, then they shot his dog on camera?
california cops truly have a mindset to just shoot and kill everything, every chance they get.

Erick Gelhaus - you WILL infact face God, you will.

on one hand i think some people are so petrified they are not capable of perfoming police duties - they think everyone's going to spin and shoot them.

but knowing this guy's history i don't think he was pissing his pants in fear,
instead i think he is in this job because he wants opportunities to shoot people while simultaneously pretending to be some hero gunfighter who "won". i bet he's pissed this was not a young gangmember with an AK, i think he wished it was an inexperienced untrained teen holding an AK so he could have shot the kid dead and claimed his hero prize for taking down a violent gangmember.
he likely goes HUNTING for such situations, and on that day his mind said "JACKPOT! i'm gonna get a medal soon as i shoot this dark-skinned teen holding an AK; i can't wait to have my night out with the boys giving me highfives buying me beers".

he's very upset now; upset it was only a plastic gun; no hero medal; no high fives, no beers. poor sad killer cop.

erik - you weren't taking a hill in a military combat scenario, it was suburbia, you had no obligation to "take out any enemy i see". but guys like you don't have the guts to face actual combat; you want to play in the kiddie pool and pretend to be the best swimmer and diver there, when everyone around you is a toddler and you're 40.
you're not paranoid, you were not in fear for your safety, you were HUNTING some stupid gangmember teen that you could shoot, having had years of training that a dumb gangbanger does not have, so you could play big hero cop and have "war stories" to tell in your range classes and impress the noobs. you felt GLEE when you saw a dark-skinned teenager holding what might be a gun.

you saw the shiny golden ring and lunged for it with no concern for what is right, or for anyone but yourself. like Gollum, you'll fall off the cliff into the lava below. adios.

Erick Gelhaus is the man responsible for shooting and killing 13-year-old Andy Lopez. As we learn more about him, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify his actions.

Deputy Gelhaus is a hardcore gun enthusiast who has written extensively about weaponry on the internet and in magazines.

Despite his obsession with guns, this cop had only fired his gun once in his 24-year career. And that lone shot was when he accidentally shot himself in the leg while attempting to holster his weapon.

His first shots outside of his pant leg resulted in the murder of an innocent child. If he was thinking logically, he has the knowledge to realize the kid was carrying a toy and not an actual gun. But instead, it appears as if he had 24 years of itchy trigger finger buildup and couldn’t wait any longer to shoot someone other than himself.

Witnesses say Gelhaus was only on the scene for ten seconds and made just one request to Andy Lopez before unloading eight bullets into his victim.

Gelhaus started firing his weapon at the child before the child had even turned around to face who was yelling. One of the first bullets striking the kid in the buttocks, another striking Andy in the right side piercing his heart, this according to the autopsy. The rest of the bullets were fired into the body after the kid had fallen down.

Gelhaus is a murderer -- a trigger happy gun freak who probably enjoyed killing a child. I would not doubt that he also killed innocent children in Iraq.

purge this scum from the ranks as no harm should come to women and children by his hand ever again. This guy is a work of self deluded visions of a messiah complex, oh and he is a chicken shit cunt as well.

i find it sad that he seems to have been judged justified by his oversight. anyone who has studied this can tell what happened and can tell that he shouldnt be on the street. hopefully the parents will prevail in a civil suit. if gelhaus had any amount of personal pride he would quit in shame. The local DA needs to be voted out in the next election as he/she is the ultimate enabler

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